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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

I've been really tied up with other things and haven't been here much. Besides, everyone hates jazz anyway.

But anyway, with the little practice I get, I've been playing a lot of free jazz lately just like Scott. I really like playing free and as Kenny Werner says, there's no wrong note. And he's right, when playing free, it's hard to come up with a wrong note if you develop an idea around any place you go. It's just coincidentel that Scott did it while I was exploring that. I just found that it really trains my ears to look for melodies if I'm not bound by a progression.

Haven't made a recording because I don't know if anyone would be interested but it's become a part of my practice routine now to do a little bit of to start with.

Anyway, just my short idea for the week. As you were. Resume hating jazz or liking jazz as you prefer. As long as I'm getting paid to play jazz, I really have nothing to complain about

I thought I'd share our first tune that we played last Saturday in a local supermarket. That was a great gig. My bass player friend finally had to cancel but immediately found a back up for me who ended up being really great. Overall a nice gig, and I even had my camera with me.

I've been really lucky to meet lots of great musicians lately, and that's lots of fun. Last Thursday we played a group that really blew my mind. And we're going to do it again 2 weeks from now. I intend on properly recording that one. The intent is to actually get someone to come and properly record "live". If that doesn't happen, I'll record with the zoom. That group felt really great. I had no idea who I was going to play with.

Hello Knots. Everyone's been distracted and quiet. That was some enjoyable video! First, your frenchie beret and even your body movements make me think I'm looking at Dave Frank. LOL. You do look like you're enjoying yourself. That was a great performance and very tasteful solo on your part. Just swinging and right in the pocket so kudos in a big way!

I've been distracted by life and for the first time, my practice hours have been cut down. However, the gigs are booked to the hilt so that's where my practice has been occurring. I will post some music from last night's gig a little later today.

I've had so many recordings of gigs the last few weeks and I haven't even listened to them...

Well Chris and I will have something to say about your attire -- where's the prerequisite black? LOL.

Admitedly though, the body movement with that beret does give the impression that you're some long time pro! (at least on the East coast).

Probably won't work for me here...Haha.

Now my gig last night is different because it's a more quiet venue (coffee shop/restaurant). Quiet and smaller crowd so it was more like a real concert. I had a quartet (Guitar) but our volume and style was more like a trio. Very low volume. This was a new thing for me to be in the forefront and it's only the 2nd time I've done it. I like the guitar guy because he likes playing 'heads' and I haven't had practice time to clean those up. I'm just editing the recordings now.

Hi KnottyThat was so fun, you guys all clicked really well. I recognised the sax guy from your concert at the IMF. I can't believe you kept form even though there were so many distracting people around you hehe.I honestly do like your image. Where do you get your shirts from ?The only suggestion I would make is that for your next recording, I would place the mics closer to you and the bassist.WFM rules for having such a cool retail format and for inviting you guys.

Hi JWSounds like you are having fun experimenting with different combos and styles.

Here are some of the recordings from Thursday night. Again, a more intimate venue and people listened more. This was promoted as a trio but I'm always joined by a "quiet" guitar player. All the heads are a bit rusty for the guitar player and myself. That's the problem with having horn players all the time. They always take over the head.

Nice Knotty. Tasteful solo. Fun to hear a Rhodes sound (and yes turn up the volume) and the band sounds great!+1 with the cap, whenever I wear it I get more looks from the other camp (yhan usual) and people do assume that I can groove my way through a tune. I guess I picked up a trick or two at the Aebersold camp!Nice to hear Days of W and R, its a great tune and you both play it at nice tempo. I'm surprised however that neither of you do the Wayne Shorter variation (up a minor third the second chorus) and that you both walk from bar 1 in the head. I prefer to break it up ala Autumn Leaves.

Oh yes, black. But Hawaiian shirts can also work.

ps: love that people actually got up and danced. Even if it's just a couple its something that I dig.

I have never played D of W & R in a group before. The reason is that it's not in the new Real Books. So it just keeps getting forgotten. In fact I haven't played it at home in at least 5-6 years and I couldn't remember the head. But I thought it turned out OK for a first try.

I was never even aware of a Wayne Shorter variation, but then again, considering we don't even have changes, we had to go with what is available (iRealB).

Talking about intros, we started the gig with a very long casual vamp. First it was just the bass. Then drums. Then I comped a little. We alter the rhythm a lot. All in 'Am'. Then we turn it into Summertime.

Really cool because it starts off like we're just tuning instruments. We did this a couple of times before. We don't rehearse so we don't really have any way to have a more complex pre-planned intro on anything. But lots of these evolving vamps are really good for the modal tunes (So What, Footprints,...).

I have a really cool bassist that just does everything by interaction. We just look at each other and weird things happen. I often have no idea in advance what tempo a tune will end up in.

Joy Spring: I took on this Clifford Brown classic as a challenge. A great be bop tune. The head is hard and has taken a while to get up to speed. I find working on a difficult head the most fun way to work on technique. Once you learn the head, the tune is all II-V-Is an no big deal to blow on.

Jeanine: This Duke Pearson tune is also challenging because it has to be played well over 200 or it falls flat. My bass player likes tunes that are really up tempo. I really like the chord structure because it starts modally with 8 bars of Ab minor, and then goes into II-Vs.

Sonnymoon for Two: A very simple Sonny Rollins blues head. I learned the melody in about 10 minutes by listening to recordings. I picked this up at the fun web site learnjazzstandards.com. It's good to have a bunch of blues heads ready to go when you just want to play blues.

Celia: This is my new project. I'd like get deeper into Bud Powell, so I've picked out this great tune he wrote. It'll be several weeks before I can play this with a group.

As you can see, I enjoy learning a challenging head. I'm pretty lazy on practicing technique, but I enjoy working on a tune.

The head on Jeanine is much easier if you play single notes, but at least on piano, you've got to play at least thirds if not triads for the opening 8 measures. The head on Joy Spring is about the best grace note/trill practice you can find!

Nice Knotty. Tasteful solo. Fun to hear a Rhodes sound (and yes turn up the volume) and the band sounds great!+1 with the cap, whenever I wear it I get more looks from the other camp (yhan usual) and people do assume that I can groove my way through a tune. I guess I picked up a trick or two at the Aebersold camp!Nice to hear Days of W and R, its a great tune and you both play it at nice tempo. I'm surprised however that neither of you do the Wayne Shorter variation (up a minor third the second chorus) and that you both walk from bar 1 in the head. I prefer to break it up ala Autumn Leaves.

Oh yes, black. But Hawaiian shirts can also work.

ps: love that people actually got up and danced. Even if it's just a couple its something that I dig.

And what I do miss is intros (I love intros).

Hey Chris, thanks for the feedback. I find the rhodes easier to play on digital than piano, especially in large rooms like that. Smaller rooms seem easier. But generally I prefer the control on EP. It seems like I could have turned up, and I probably did after a tune or 2. It's hard to tell from where I sit. funny you mention the 3rd up. I was just checking out a post TromboneAl posted on D of W&R and that's what happens. I got to check that out.

The head on Jeanine is much easier if you play single notes, but at least on piano, you've got to play at least thirds if not triads for the opening 8 measures. The head on Joy Spring is about the best grace note/trill practice you can find!

Hey jjoI think you specialize in finding difficult heads to play !When I read your post, I thought "Don't know Jeannine. Must learn what the head sounds like" then I had to shoot out the door for a jazz concert.Guess what ? The first song the Andrew Speight quintet play is Jeannine.

I pick some difficult heads to learn out of laziness! I'm not fond of technical practice, but I like to learn heads, so learning a tricky head is the only way I get trick myself to spend enough time on technique.

One of the more difficult heads I learned was Ceora. My sax player cringes when I call the tune. It's really difficult on piano. A lot of it is played with finger 4 and 5 on stretched hands. I'm always afraid I will screw it up on a gig so fortunately, someone else is playing the head.

A big thanks to you Chris and to Mark from NZ for writing up such interesting thoughts from the great Gary Burton.

At the moment, I seem to average 6 bars managing to say something worthwhile. I've been pushing myself to average 8 bars.You know where Gary advocates making line lengths horn-like/ manageable for a vocalist ? How long would you consider too long ?

Go Sonny and go Knotty !So you are a regular there on Thursday nights.I like how you took this one at mid-tempo and I also enjoyed your cool solo and nice comping.It was great to hear the keys and the talented bassist so clearly.The slight crackling through my right speaker got progressively louder, and I think your Zoom this time could have been placed closer to the drums, so hard to get it right huh ?But that's a good combo you've got there imo.

Yes I'm reaping the benefits of the Burton masterclass on you-tube. I've already learnt and applied to improv: 1. The lydian major mode2. A symmetrical dim scale (half-whole dim)3. Today I plan to start learning the altered scale.

With regards to the Burton course I will do in April 2013, I realize from Chris' article just how much I don't know, especially- improv. blues (I like Burton's approach of mixolydian with additional notes)- comping

You're right, this recording is a crying shame. I didn't really pay attention. I forgot my mic clip and we just shove the mic in the bass quaver, which turned out disastrous. Oh well, I'll do better next time.

I thought I'd post this recording from one of my few solo gigs (last night). The gig was somewhat disastrous in that the audience was pretty non-existent, and the ones that were there were non-responsive. But I played better than I have at other solo gigs.

I'm pleased with this tune since I somehow avoided speeding up, and didn't make too many errors. I'd like to improve it by varying the dynamics a bit. The bass line is pretty repetitive and basic (ha ha), but that makes it easier to play the melody above it. I stretched this out more than usual because I was running out of set list.